Herod the Great
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
King of the Jews, an Idumæan by birth, made king by the triumvirs in 40 b. c. He is famed in history for his cruelty; and one of his latest acts was the massacre of the Innocents, which he ordered in the hope of killing him who (the Magi had told him) was "born king of the Jews." He died in 2 A. D. HEROD AGRIPPA I., son of Aristobulus by Berenice, daughter of Herod the Great. From his attachment to Caligula he was imprisoned by Tiberius, but on the accession of Caligula (A. D. 37) he received the government of part of Palestine, and latterly all the dominions of Herod the Great. To please the Jews, with whom his rule was very popular, he caused St. James to be put to death, and imprisoned St. Peter. He died in the circumstances related in Acts xii., in A. D. 44. HEROD AGRIPPA II., a Jewish prince; son of Herod Agrippa I.; born about A. D. 27. On his father's death, he being too young to govern, Judea was reduced to a Roman province. He subsequently received the kingdom of Chalcis, and obtained the superintendency of the temple at Jerusalem, where, with his sister, Berenice, he heard the defense of Paul before Festus. Being driven from Jerusalem by by the revolt of the Jews he joined Cestius, and later on Vespasian, and during the siege of Jerusalem was very serviceable to Titus. After its reduction (A. D. 70) he and Berenice returned to Rome. He is supposed to have died there, A. D. 94.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 date of "died in 2 A. D." has not survived: the standard reckoning from Josephus puts Herod's death in 4 B.C., a few scholars arguing for 1 B.C., which is one reason the Gospel nativity cannot be dated to A.D. 1. The massacre of the Innocents, which Collier's treats as plain history and "one of his latest acts", appears only in Matthew and is regarded by most modern historians as unhistorical, though the reputation for cruelty rests on plenty of other evidence, including his execution of his wife Mariamne and three of his own sons. What has grown enormously is Herod the builder: excavation at Caesarea Maritima, Masada, the Herodium and the Temple Mount retaining walls has made him one of the best-documented patrons of monumental architecture in the ancient world, and in 2007 Ehud Netzer announced the discovery of what he identified as Herod's tomb at Herodium. Collier's also slips in calling Berenice, mother of Agrippa I, a daughter of Herod; she was the daughter of Herod's sister Salome, and so his niece.
Written for this edition, 2026.